can i use an external hard drive on my ipad Air 2

You can purchase either any USB/USB-C flash drive stick or any USB-C SSD ( Solid State flash memory Drive ).

SSDs, unlike older, old school data storage hard drives are less power hungry and have no moving/spinning, electro-mechanical parts that need lots of power to operate.

Popular SSDs are from SanDisk/Western Digital, Samsung, Seagate.

Regular, “Old Skool” mechanical spinning hard drives WILL need/require additional external power support for these drives to work with ANY iPad model.

Mechanical, spinning platter hard drives use too much power and cannot be powered by the just the iPad’s own internal power alone.

Then, you need to purchase the actual, genuine Apple Lightning to USB-3 camera adapter, from Apple, and plug that adapter into external power using your iPad charge cable and Apple power/charging block!

Tap the link below.

Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter - Apple usb-3-camera-adapter?fnode=37

You NEED TO PURCHASE THIS EXACT genuine Apple adapter above!!!

This is THE ONLY adapter that works!

Cheaper ( cheap in price and quality ) third party “knockoff” adapters WILL NOT WORK!!!!

With Lightning connector equipped iPads, you need this adapter as it has a Lightning connector power connection to power both the iPad and to connect a commonplace USB flash memory drive or portable SSD drive.

Without the additional power to the iPad, USB flash drives and portable SSD drives will NOT work with older iPads with the Lightning connector.

The Lightning connector alone cannot convey the,necessary power requirements needed for normal USB style flash memory drives.

YOU NEED TO CONNECT AN EXTERNAL POWER SOUCE TO THIS ADAPTER for that adapter to work with ANY externally connected drive!!! Even to get any standard USB flash memory drives to work on older Lightning connector equipped iPads.

For external power sources, you CAN even use portable, carry-able, rechargeable power banks that can be found everywhere online ( try Amazon ) that can power the iPad and external drives, as well.

There are lots of YouTube videos that discuss and demonstrate this.

Here are just two references, as an example.

YouTube video reference links below

Tap the links below.

https://youtu.be/1Jm-xcrbFy8

https://youtu.be/8iHc1mc5SJE

You must use a full Mac or Windows PC computer to do the re-formatting of any external drive to use with iPad/iPhone/iOS/iPadOS.

My experiences have recommended that any external drive needing to be used with ANY Apple iPadOS device really needs to be formatted on an Apple Mac computer to ensure/insure correct operation.

If NO Mac computer, find and family member or friend that owns a Mac to possibly help you format this drive

OR

You need to search online for your nearest, “local” Apple store location and call contact phone numbers and call to make an appointment to ANY external drive you have properly format by Apple employees who have access to a Mac.

They will be glad to assist you.

In addition, the external drive needs to be formatted using a single data drive partition into one of these file/data formats below.

Apple Mac computer native drive formats - APFS ( Apple Proprietary File System ) OR Apple HFS+ ( Hierarchical File System+ )

Fat 32

exFAT

USB-C port equipped iPads need NO additional adapters, as long as the external drive, itself, uses USB-C as well.

If not, you will need to purchase these adapter from Apple.

USB-C to USB Adapter - Apple

OR

For “old skool”, mechanical, spinning platter hard drives

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MUF82AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter?

Apple Website external drive help links here below.

Tap the links below.

Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPad – Apple Support (UK)

Connect external storage devices to iPad - Apple Support

Good Luck to You!

In succinct and digestible terms, connection of external storage devices is possible - with some caveats...

To be recognised by iPadOS, the attached USB storage device must be formatted to FAT, FAT32, exFAT, APFS or HFS+ with a single partition. As the iPad has limited power capabilities, dependent upon the Storage Device, an external power source is often required. For HDD, an external power source is definitely required.

If your iPad Pro has a Lightning port, you will need to use an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter to connect USB devices to the iPad. This adapter has both a USB 3.0 Type-A connector and an additional Lightning port to supply power, from your Power Adapter, to both the iPad and connected device. The Power Adapter must be rated at 12W or more.

• Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter

https://store.apple.com/uk/xc/product/MK0W2ZM/A

Some additional information can be found here:

Connect external devices or servers with Files on iPhone - Apple Support

https://www.imore.com/how-use-external-hard-drives-your-iphone-or-ipad

As you have an iPad Air2, you would be best advised to update to the most recent supported version of iPadOS - at the time of writing, this being iPadOS 15.7.2. Ne aware that the Air2 does not support iPadOS 16.x.

I hope this information proves to be helpful in resolving your connection difficulties.

I am not sure which iPadOS version offered smoother external drive support, but you best be advised to uograde your iPad Air 2 to its last, but latest version of iPadOS 15.7.2.

Make sure your iPad has no VPN running. If it does, temporarily, disable it.

Make sure your iPad is not running any test, Beta iOS/iPadOS software. If it is you'll need to remove/uninstall it.

The official Apple released OS upgrade/update version/s will not be present or be able to be installed whilst Apple OS Beta software installations are currently active and running.

IF you have an iPadOS 15.7.1 or iPadOS 16.1, or later, compatible iPad, that iPad year and model is, probably, waaaay too far behind in iOS/iPadOS upgrades/updates.

If you have access to a full computer, like a Mac or Windows PC, try either using the Finder on a Mac that has the newest macOS Catalina, or later macOS, installed OR with an older Mac with an older Mac OS, download and install the latest iTunes version ( or latest iTunes for Windows PC ), make sure the Mac or Windows PC is connected to the Internet, connect your iPad by the USB charge cable to the computer and let the iTunes application upgrade/update that iPad model, using the iTunes Software Update feature, to its current, maximum OS of iOS 12.5.6/iPadOS 15.7.2/iPadOS 16.2, depending on your year and model of iPad.

A 2013 iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Mini 2nd gen and 2014 iPad Mini 3 can ONLY be updated to iOS 12.5.6.

A 2014 iPad Air 2 and a 2015 iPad Mini 4 can ONLY be upgraded to iPadOS 15.7.2

Any other newer iPad model from late 2015 can be upgraded to the latest iPadOS 16.2.

At this late stage, use of a Mac or Windows PC is, now, unavoidable.

Make sure your iPad is, at least, charged to 50% or greater to attempt this.

Also, make sure your iPad has, at least, between 6-8 GBs of free internal data storage space for downloading and installing a major iOS/iPadOS upgrade.

Make sure your desktop/laptop computer has plenty of internal drive storage space, also.

Also, make sure to do a backup of your iPad's data, prior to upgrading/updating.

Backup to Apple iCloud and/or a full Mac or Windows PC using the same iTunes app OR, if a newer Mac running macOS Catalina, or later, making a backup using the macOS Finder app.

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

If NO access to a Mac or Windows computer, you will have to seek help from a good friend or family member, with a full Mac or Windows PC, to help you out

OR

Search online to locate and call contact your nearest, “local” Apple Store location to try/attempt to make an appointment to get your Apple iPad upgraded/updated to its latest iPadOS 15 version.

OR, alternatively, use the “Get Support” link, at the upper right hand corner of every Apple Support Community Webpage to attempt to schedule an appointment with your nearest Apple Store location.

Apple Store employees will be glad to help/assist you.

( continued in my next reply )